The Return
by jenniferkim
Summary: A story in which the couple of Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura is created. And Who doesn’t want that to happen? Seriously why would you be in the SasukSaku section if you didn’t?


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A story in which the couple of Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura is created. And Who doesn't want that to happen? Seriously why would you be in the SasukSaku section if you didn't?

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Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto…I guess that would be nice.

Anyway onto the goods._ Jennifer Kim_

Setting: Things have changed in Konoha in the past 5 years. For one thing, the time lapse makes people who are not 10 and under (such as myself just saying) not feel like pedophiles anymore for watching a show about 12 year olds. Uzumaki Naruto and company (rookie 9) are all now Jounin because they are such wonderful and hard working little shinobi. Go them! I wish I could do just one freaking backflip. Anywho, if you even bothered to read this I'm surprised and I will now get on with this little ditty. Oh and it's the anniversary day of every Sasusaku fan's greatest nightmare (sort of and sort of not because he does thank her for who knows what): the day that Sasuke left the village to live with pedo man Orochimaru. Bad choice idiot!

_The Return_

Chapter one: Somewhat Ironic

Haruno Sakura awoke to the sun blinding her through her window at the bright and early hour of 6:00 AM.

She had had a tough day the day before, as she was coming back from an S ranked mission (her mission was to retrieve a runaway prisoner in case you cared) she had received from the village's Hokage (I think we all know who that is), only to be ambushed by some highway bandits. Normally this would have been cakewalk for the pink haired kunoichi but after tracking and returning the convict, six bloodthirsty people are not exactly what you want to deal with. Unless you are Naruto, or Lee, and you constantly want to fight to prove you're the bomb diggity. Needless to say Sakura wanted very much to roll back over and sleep for another three hours, but there was no way she could do that after the nightmares she had gone through during her previous sleep.

It wasn't too odd that Sakura had a nightmare. Everyone has a fair amount in their lifetime. But chances are they weren't as bad, or nearly as wretched, as hers of yesterday's sleep. Mostly her dream was brought on by the impending day, which was now presently today, that she knew was coming like Naruto comes for Ramen: the anniversary of her previous years' (and present's also even though it was almost wrong she had hung on to him so long) infatuation: Uchiha Sasuke, the prodigy who hated his life and people in general.

Ah, Sasuke. The characterization of every girl's bad boy fantasy. Onyx eyes, black, emo, spiky hair, a perfect bod and an icy personality... Indeed the Sharingan user could be considered one of the hottest things since bottled water. However, we are going off the beaten path and into Sasuke dreamer land (which isn't too bad of a place), when we should be profiling the doings of a certain medic nin instead, who is now currently walking out her door.

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Sakura began her walk around Konoha around 6:15 AM. She was off from the hospital today (much to her demise as she needed something to take her mind off a certain someone), and decided this would be a more useful way of utilizing her time than sitting in her home depressed. She bought some tea from an early opening stall near her apartment and wrote her case file for her last mission out of boredom. Unfortunately this only took her about an hour and a half (rather than the 8 it took Naruto or even the three it took Ino) to finish because of her massive intellect and memory. She paid for the tea then continued on her trek about town.

A few hours later, kicking a stone and she walked past the Ichiraku ramen stall, she saw and briefly waved to her blond haired, loud mouthed team mate (who she normally observed there around 3 times a day) and the purple eyed, timid girl with which the young man was associating.

As Sakura watched them for a few moments she saw the store owner hand the young man a bill, at which he let out a severe rant, at which the purple eyed girl fainted, at which the boy decided to stop screaming and assist his companion. Not wanting to become part of the scene, Sakura hastened down the road and thought.

_It's so great that Naruto is finally dating Hinata-chan.They are so cute together and they both really like each other as well…_

As she reflected upon these things she thought of the other couples within the Rookie 9 which had sprouted in the last few years. Neji and Tenten were announced together around 2 years ago, making them the oldest pair. But only by a hair as about 8 weeks after Shikamaru and Ino spilled that they were also giving dating a go. While she was happy, in fact overjoyed, for her friend's successful love lives, sometimes when she thought about it, the prospect of all her friends having corresponding mates saddened her, as her own love life had little to no action whatsoever.

In actuality the last (and only) individual for which she professed undying love called her annoying and left her on a park bench. Yeah, that one didn't end up so well.

Downtrodden, Sakura was not very happy with the track of thought this mental conversation had led to. As she looked around her surroundings, she realized she was no longer on the hard concrete road but stepping on grass and dry mud. It seemed her subconscious had led her to the training grounds of the hidden village, which was overall a fine and normal place to be. The pink haired girl walked though the surrounding forested areas and briefly chatted with the various people she found there: Rock Lee, who talked to her of the beauty of youth until she couldn't take it anymore and not so politely ran away, Kakashi-sensei, who she still called sensei even though they were both ranked Jounin (out of habit probably), and Kiba. After petting Akamaru and saying her good byes, the young girl decided to visit her Hokage and report on her mission from the day before, then eat out and go home. A normal ending to the day…right?

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"Tsunade-Sama? Sakura-san has come to report her mission on the Prison escapee."

A bored looking woman with amber eyes and blonde hair glanced up for a millisecond from her mountain of paper work sitting on her desk, looked back down, and lazily responded with a motion of her hand, signaling to let her in.

Sakura walked into the room and bowed slightly to her teacher and village overseer. "Hello Tsunade-shishou, I was just going to give you the results and data of the case from yesterday."

"Hai. Proceed…" was the reply, along with a few inaudible mutters about having even more work to do.

Sakura then began to inform the blonde woman of the past day's history without any difficulty. She had done this so many times before it was more normal to have something to report to the Hokage than for her to just be visiting. However when she finally got to the part of her run in with the robbers, an ANBU squad member, who had been obviously running because of all his panting, entered the room and attempted to catch his breath.

Tsunade looked up from her desk and observed the random intruder with a slight glare in her eyes. "Um… is there any particular reason you decided to barge into the room while I'm listening to a report?"

"H-hai, Tsunade-sama." He responded, after taking one larger breath and clearing his throat. "Our squad has returned from the mission you had given us."

…_Obviously…_ both mentor and pupil thought.

The masked figure had finally recovered his regular breathing pattern by this time, only to start summarizing his report _during_ Sakura's visit. But Sakura let it go also; it wasn't everyday you saw a frazzled ANBU, so she figured she would like to stay. Plus, it wasn't like she had anything better to do. "Although we thought this would be a regular mission to assist the poorer villages in the country of fire, we began to hear rumors concerning the missing nin… Orochimaru."

At this Tsunade's (and of course Sakura's) eyes opened a little wider, and her ears listened a little closer. "What exactly did you happen to hear?"

"We heard…Orochimaru has been…defeated."

Thrown off guard, Sakura gasped lightly and gripped a hand over her heart. Tsunade's action was a bit more active.

"WHAT?!" she exclaimed, standing up abruptly and slapping her poor, unsuspecting desk. "Can you confirm these rumors to be accurate?!"

Considering her words, the masked man replied "While we searched for physical evidence that would conclude this subject, we found no traces of him or any sound shinobi near that village. However, it seems the people of that specific area claimed to be near the village of Sound (apparently they had been working near to it) are much more happy and claim it to be because they were released of the missing his presence."

The next phrase was the one that put the icing on the cake.

"And we heard that Orochimaru was defeated by missing nin… Uchiha Sasuke.:

A few silent moments passed as the Hokage and her apprentice tried to grasp the concept there was a possibility that a) Orochimaru had been defeated and b) it was Sasuke who had done it. _If he really is dead…where will Sasuke-kun possibly go? I wonder if he is all right…_ and other facts of the like that which involved her old Uchiha team mate sprung foremost into her mind. (Of course Inner Sakura was screaming things more along the lines of **"Hell yeah Sasuke! Way to show that disgusting bastard whos boss!! Go Sasuke-kun!" **And wasaccompanied with victory dances and chants worthy of a Grammy) Finally, the older woman sat back down and let out a large sigh.

"We will not tell anyone of the theory you just spoke of if it can not be proven with real evidence. Keep this theory to yourself, yet also keep your eyes peeled for anything concerning this matter." She turned towards the other girl standing in the room. "The same goes for you Sakura, do not tell anyone, ANYONE, even Naruto, what you have just heard."

"Hai, Tsunade-shishou…" she trailed off, still deep in thought with her brows furrowed.

"Thank you very much; good work on your report. You may leave," she stated, still seated sloppily on her chair as if she had just had a heart attack (which she had, in a way). Then once again turning to her student she sat up a bit straighter and addressed her.

"Are you all right in light of this new rumor?"

Startled by the outburst of speech, Sakura jumped a little "H-hai Tsunade shishou…"

"Are you sure," she asked suspiciously. Judging from her ninja, the answer was NO.

Sakura nodded and took a sturdier pose, dropping the hand that was on her heart and replied "Yes, I'm just really, really surprised…" However after this statement she returned to thinking about how Sasuke was doing now and if he had been hurt.

Tsunade sighed, leaned back and stared at the ceiling, then regained her composure. "That is enough for today Sakura. You can fill me in with the rest of your report's details tomorrow. Right now I don't seem to have the attention span for it, and you probably have other things on your mind right now."

"Thank you Tsunade-shishou," she mumbled and turned on her heels, exiting through the wooden sliding door of the Hokage's office. Lost in thought, Sakura turned her mind to the "things" Tsunade had mentioned; well, actually one thing (or person) in particular.

_Well, that was certainly unexpected_.

**Tch, hell yeah it was! We should throw a partay!**

_I don't think so. No one else is supposed to know that Sasuke-kun could have done this. I hope he's all right…_

**Gimme a break, it's Sasuke! He would survive if you hit him with a snow truck.**

_True enough…maybe I am just overreacting…_

This inner conversation went on for some time, only to be interrupted when she turned a corner and ran into something, or rather someone.

"Aieeee!! Sakura-chan, what was that for?!"

"Oh, gomen Naruto…"

"…Hey are you feeling okay? You look kind of sick."

Sakura held in her annoyance at everyone asking her that same question, and also knew it would hurt Naruto's feelings. "I think I'm fine, Naruto. Thanks for asking though."

"Hey if you're not doing anything, and you're not sick, would you come with me to get some ramen?"

"I saw you there already today with Hinata! You're going to make yourself sick-"

"If I eat there too much. Yeah, yeah you tell me that every day. C'mon I'm soooo hungry!!!"

He grabbed her hand and dragged her to the stall (not like she cared because she didn't have anything better to do), and concluded it was fine because she already made plans in her head to eat out earlier that day. The dinner went by quickly, as the old friends talked of old (and new) occurrences. By the time they were finished, the clock's face read 8:30 PM, Naruto had downed 12 bowls of ramen, and Sakura was satisfied that the day was almost over so she could get past it. Of course Naruto had to end their dinner with a chat about yours truly.

"Listen, Sakura-chan…I know what day it is and I saw you today walking around the town…"

Sakura's ears pricked up and she responded with a "So…?"

"Sakura, I know you. I know you thought about him today. I just wanted to tell you know matter what I'll get that arrogant teme back here so we can beat him up together. Okay?"

The teenage girl smiled; she really didn't deserve a friend as caring as her team mate. "Thank you Naruto, but please don't worry about me. This day just is a little more significant for me than others, and I will be fine when it is over."

Naruto gave one of his cheesy grins and a thumbs up to his dinner companion. "All right Sakura-chan, I was just checking on you. I'm glad we could have dinner like this!"

"Me too, Naruto. Take care," she stated as she began to exit the stall.

"Oi, Sakura-chan! Do you want me to walk you home? It's dangerous at night…"

"Oh please, I think I'll be fine on my own considering I have super human strength and am apprentice to the Hokage. Besides, you have a mission report to give tomarrow, and you probably haven't started writing it yet."

Naruto looked at her like she had just given him the death sentence. "Oh no I totally forgot! I have to get home and do that right nowwww! Good night Sakura-chan!" As he ran off, Sakura giggled silently to herself; that is, until she saw Naruto had left her with the bill.

"NARUTO BAKAAAA!!!"

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The walk home was silent. The only sounds that could be heard by the pink haired girl walking down the street were her own footsteps, her own breath, and crickets chirping in the grass of the village. Sakura wasn't accustomed to quiet, and although she enjoyed peaceful moments (as she spent much of her time with the loudest ninja in the country), they left her to her thoughts more than she would have wanted them to.

Obviously this rumor of Orochimaru being defeated by Sasuke-kun was impossible. Although Sakura knew that her old team mate was strong, she didn't think it highly probable that in such a short amount of time he could really defeat a legendary Sannin. Then again, it wouldn't make much sense if the ninjas of the area near the hidden village of sound were making up this rumor, much less rejoicing over it. Why would they make up something and then pretend to be happy about it?

Stopping for a rest, Sakura had sat down without noticing it. As she took in her surroundings, she realized where she was.

_Wow, talk about ironic_ she commented mentally, concluding this to be the exact area of one of the only places Sasuke had shown her any direct emotional sentiment: the place which had haunted her nightmares of the past morning, the place where he had left her with a brief and bitter farewell in his pursuit for power. Even though this conjured up a substantial amount of emotion in the girl, she didn't come close to crying, remembering her promise to herself and others to not be so dependent and knew full well it wouldn't do her any good. Standing up and stretching, the medic nin decided it well past the hour when young women are supposed to walk around the streets (it was around 9:00) and that the sooner she got home and into bed, the better she would feel.

Hence she began to walk away form that heinous location with many a bad memory, but was stopped when she heard the distinct sound of footsteps approaching her from the exit gate of the village.

_Who would be entering the village at this time of the night_ she questioned.

**Who cares…let's just go home. I'm freaking tired. What If it's…bad?**

_Well, I'm curious and I control my actions, not you. So we're going to check it out._

**Whatever. But if it's a rapist, don't say you haven't been warned…**

Cautiously Sakura concealed herself in the shadow of the gate looming over the exit so she could get a glimpse of the figure. The footsteps grew louder and from what she heard she deducted that the one she pursued had either a serious growth problem, or a limp, most likely caused from an injury. On top of this he was also holding his side as if he had been wounded there also.

She could now see the outline of the, now obvious, young man who she had been looking for, although it was still much too hard for her to make out his face. From what she could tell, the teen wore a robe tied in the back with a large rope, a simple and normal enough outfit, with a katana at his side and had a spiky haircut. To her surprise, the shadow stopped his gimping and looked to the area where the kunoichi had been hidden, and her breath caught in her throat. Unknowing of what to do in the situation she simply looked right back into the eyes of her discoverer.

The next few moments of her life seemed to pass in slow motion. It was now true that Sakura had in fact lost her ability to move, and she was paralyzed by the eyes which watched her now as mush as she had been watching their owner a few moments ago. Finally the young pink haired girl, after what seemed to her like a few minutes of awkward staring, was forced to blink by her own reflex memory. As soon as she opened her eyes again however, the figure was nowhere to be found.

Confused and now concluding mentally it was not worth the trouble to find out who this individual might be, Sakura decided it was time to go. This entire escapade was a waste of her time and energy, and it was scaring the heebie-jeebies out of her. The girl was now resolved to go home. She would just walk towards her house cautiously and keep her eyes and ears open particularly in the direction of the road. Turning away from the Konoha gate, she began to take her first steps out of the protective darkness of the wall and back onto the road again.

Suddenly there was a flash of color before her and she was pinned to a tree near to the cold wooden bench which symbolized her weakness (she had walked this far) side by an unknown force. Although she struggled against both her opponent and panic with valor, it didn't seem to be enough for her to get out of either's grip. Resigning to await her fate, Sakura merely closed her eyes and counted the seconds to her imminent doom.

However that moment never came.

Sakura waited and waited, eyelids pinched shut, for about 10 seconds straight before realizing there was no murderous intent of this individual, and his charka actually seemed…familiar to her. Slowly and very timidly, she opened her eyes and gazed upon whoever had put her into such a state of terror.

Black, spiky hair. A slender face and frame. A long robe with a large rope.

Obsidian eyes with three large commas each, swirling apathetically at the scene displayed in front of them.

"S-sas…sas…."

"Hn."

The pressure which had been plastering her to the tree trunk was released, but that only contributed assisting Sakura to fall to her knees in shock and disbelief. But the young boy still stood over her, casting his shadow down upon her stoic as ever, with his head tilted up in an angle as he watched the moon. He seemed to be deep in thought, uncaring of his current surroundings and solely occupied with things in his mind. His revelry was interrupted, however, when he felt a stab of pain shoot through his side and he gripped his wound tighter than he had been before while dropping to one knee, letting out a small grunt of pain.

This situation actually allowed Sakura to regain some of her senses, as least her medical ones. "It seems you were in a battle earlier; allow me to treat your wounds." She still couldn't bring herself to say his name for fear that he would evaporate right there on the spot.

Without a word, he allowed her to lead him over to the bench, which he sat down in wordlessly and continued his staring at the moon. The medic nin kneeled in front of him and moved his hand away from the gash in his side, which caused a little more pain then he would have liked to admit. Gasping slightly, the girl saw that the cut was extremely deep (almost going through his torso entirely), and that there were several broken limbs close to it. Also, although the stomach wound was definitely more important to heal, she noticed the limp he had obtained was caused by a combination of breaks throughout his left leg (the opposite side of his body than the cut).

Another important observation was made by Sakura as well. "It looks like you have been traveling for at least a day without receiving any kind of medical attention."

The answer a resounding "Hn."

"I'm going to start healing the cut as best I can."

"Aa."

As she proceeded with her work, Sakura couldn't help but glance at the, now 17 years old, Sasuke-kun. His haircut had stayed almost exactly the same, still frayed in the back and with longer bangs in the front. His body was well… in a word flawless. You could probably bounce rocks off his abs without affecting him at all. But even that wasn't much different then how he had used to be. What she noticed the most was the change in his eyes. They were more distant then she had ever seen them in her entire amount of experience with him.

He had finally stopped staring at the moon and now coldly watched her work, mostly just staring at her face, sometimes catching her eyes (making her feel awkward and she would look back down upon her patient's wounds) although he never seemed to feel the same way. Her chakra filled his beaten body with a soft, green glow, and while he was grateful, knew that he would probably never thank her in person. However she knew that as well.

Ceasing temporarily to catch her breath (this was hard work after all), she began to fill in how the rest of his healing process would go down.

"Although I will be able to patch up most of your wounds, some of them are too unsafe for me to handle diving into all by myself. So, I'm going to do as much as I can, then we will go to the hospital and-"

"No."

"W-what? Why not?"

No answer.

"Well, regardless I don't know how you are going to get around the rest of your life while internally hemorrhaging. You need professional medical treatment!"

"Sakura."

He looked into her eyes and she did his, signaling when he said her name it meant 'I already said no, please don't make me say it again'. However the awkward silence dragged on and Sakura began to blush. With that she continued her work, looking down and covering her face with her bangs to shield her embarrassment. Finally she had finished the leg wound until the bones were (almost) as good as new, and it was evident to her that she had done well by the less frequent amount of flinching her patient made. The only ones he made now were because of the gash in his side.

Ears catching the unheard, the Uchiha stood up quite abruptly, placing one hand on the sword by his side (the other still clutching the cut, just less forcefully) in a defensive stance. Sakura stood up as well, for she had heard the noises also, and kicked into battle mode with him. Watching the girl next to him, he tilted his head in her direction briefly.

"Go home," he commanded.

However, pride injured, Sakura retaliated. "With your injuries still not fully healed, who knows how long you'll last if something comes to attack you."

Resisting the strong urge to roll his eyes, Sasuke replied "It's Konoha ANBU members, Sakura. You don't want to attack your own comrades, do you?"

Once again caught off guard, the kunoichi was temporarily silent before letting her protective stance down.

"You're…you're not going to fight them are you?"

No answer.

"Sasuke-kun (she had finally mustered up enough courage to say his name), I won't allow you to do that. All you will do is cause trouble for yourself and others."

No answer again.

"Sasuke-kun, please answer me!"

Sensing the footfalls to be coming closer, the prodigy activated his Sharingan and began concentrating his chakra onto the katana he carried.

"Leave. Now."

She took a step towards him and tugged his sleeve, like a beggar. "Sasuke-kun please, don't do this. You're in no condition to fight and-"

Suddenly, at least 20 ANBU members surrounded the two people who were arguing in the night. One masked man, apparently the leader, stepped out from among the rest and ordered "We are ANBU squads 3-7. Please sheath your weapon to avoid any unnecessary bloodshed."

Now utterly irritated by how the events of things had turned out, Sasuke turned to Sakura with a look of agitation written all over it. She felt ashamed for being (how she hated to say it) annoying to him, but what the heck else was she supposed to do in the situation? Seriously how did he expect to win against so many high ranking ninja? Obviously her old team mate wasn't that senile…

Or so she would have thought. If she hadn't seen him stay in a battle stance.

Another message came from the mouth of the ANBU representative. "Because you have not complied with the previous order, we will now take physical action. Go!"

As all of the men rushed towards the once favored citizen of Konoha, Sakura felt herself be pushed away from the one she tried to coerce. _I suppose they aren't going to attack me, are they_ she thought. Watching with her hands clasped together on her chest, she couldn't help but wonder why the heck Sasuke would even come back to Konoha if he wouldn't even get medical treatment or listen to directions.

The battle went on for a couple of minutes, and even with a series of minor injuries and limited chakra the 17 year old Uchiha had knocked out 14 of the 20 ninjas who clearly had the advantage. Those who stood were wobbly on their feet, no doubt shocked by the way this battle had turned out. However it was obvious the battle was coming to a close: with brand new injuries that completely negated anything Sakura had done for him previously, Sasuke was also staggering about the road where he fought, with blood seeping out of him from…well, everywhere.

Dodging a shuriken with a quick movement of his head, the black haired teen sent out one of his own, hitting the target directly in the gut. As he watched the target fall, there was a loud 'poof' and thud of a log hitting the earth. While he searched for the real foe, he felt a small pinch in his neck. Quickly reaching up, he pulled out a common poison needle used frequently by members of Konoha. With his vision and ability to move now deteriorating, Sasuke cursed and knew the end of the battle was drawing near.

The tight pressure of chakra strings enveloped him after he had taken out 2 more of the members, leaving only 3 enemies left. Exhausted, poisoned, and now bound, the missing nin fell to the ground defeated. It had taken about 12 times the average Jounin to get as far as he had, yet the defeat made him feel fairly sorry and insignificant (Perhaps due to the accomplishments of a certain older brother of his). The last scene which played before all became black was a blur of pink hovering over him, mouthing words which he could not hear.


End file.
